(CMC)—Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has warned members of the country’s fisherfolk community not to venture beyond the territorial waters of Trinidad and Tobago while reiterating the country’s support for the United States’ war on drugs in the region.
“I saw some international media said that Trinidad and Tobago is a nation of fishermen. Nothing is further from the truth. We have fishermen but we have industries and other forms of income. The impression is being made that fishermen from Trinidad and Tobago are being bombed out of the sea. What are you doing out here? Why are you so far off? Why don’t you stay in your zone? Why don’t you stay in Trinidad and Tobago waters and you’ll be safe. Trinidad is not a target. Tobago is not a target. So I totally disagree with the narrative out there by some, you know, that we’re exposing our nationals to danger,” she told reporters as she wrapped up a visit to the sister isle on Tuesday.
In recent weeks, the United States military has been bombing vessels in the international waters claiming that the occupants were drug traffickers without offering any evidence of such activity.
The families of two Trinidadians, who were reported to have been casualties of the US bombings, have since made “missing persons” reports to the police here.
The United Nations UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also strongly condemned the airstrikes carried out by the United States against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Volker Türk said in a statement that the strikes “violate international human rights law”, demanding that they be stopped immediately.
Last month, the Guyana-based Caricom Secretariat said that regional leaders had discussed several issues on the regional agenda, including the security build-up in parts of the Caribbean and its potential impact on member states.
It said that the position at that meeting was not endorsed by the government of Trinidad and Tobago.
Persad-Bissessar said that as a result of the US action, the illegal drug flows to the country have decreased.
Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro, speaking at a news conference in Port of Spain, also indicated that the war on the illegal drugs trade is having an effect on local supply.
“The intelligence indicates that there is a current shortage of the illicit drugs, particularly from those trafficked from Venezuela and Colombia and the disruption has directly affected the availability of the narcotics in Trinidad and Tobago, which as you know in business terms, when there is a shortage in supply, you know what goes up.So we have detected there has been a marked increase in the price of narcotics on the streets,” Guevarro said, adding this has led to those in the illegal drugs trade seeking to develop alternative routes,” he said.
“You know Trinis really ingenious. Here is the first thing they want to do. They going and plant weed and we already treating with that. They have men looking for particular breed of seeds from abroad to bring in, we treating with that already,” Guevarro continued.
He said the police were already dealing with marijuana eradication across the country and that on September 12, law enforcement officers seized 268 kilogrammes of Colombian creepy marijuana with a street value in excess of TT$29 million (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents).
He said on September 30, another operation led to the seizure of 201 Colombian creepy marijuana and that the US military activity has also curbed the influx of other illegal items into Trinidad and Tobago.
Meanwhile, the secretary of the non-governmental organisation, Friends and Fishermen of the Sea, Gary Aboud, said its members have been advised by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard that “it is dangerous to go offshore, and they are right, because we could be murdered at any time like many others who have been murdered before.
“We respect the warning and we urge our members to err on the side of caution, to stay close in land, not to drive at any speed because things that are moving at more than 20 knots can be blown to pieces and we support the prime minister’s statement about having respect for the rule of law that respect should also be the government and the United States should not conduct extra judicial killings. It is wrong”.
Aboud said that the Coast Guard is also urging that the fisherfolk stay within “the line of sight” adding “instead of chasing our members out of a livelihood, shouldn’t the Coast Guard consider the activation of radars because without radars the Coast Guard are blind and blind national security is the easiest to out maneuvered.
“We strongly support the Coast Guard safety measures, but we think that there is more that should be done rather than just prohibit our members and denying them the right to make a living. If it is our members are being denied the right to make a living, with great respect I ask the Right Honourable Prime Minister of the Republic to please consider some kind of compensation for our men because we are at the bottom of the economic ladder,” Aboud added.
